Tag Archives: Training

4:40am: Woke up before alarm went off at 4:45. Made coffee and ate a few pieces of brownies I baked last night.

I watched some random YouTube videos while drinking coffee before husband wakes up… I like watching inspiring and uplifting videos in the mornings. They put me in the right mood to start off a productive day. This morning I watched about bullet journaling and how it improves productivity and lifestyle. I’ve been thinking about starting one but I don’t think I have the patience.

5:45am: Went out for a long run. I ran 11 miles with 5 x 800m. Satisfied with the splits. I felt good. I love track sometimes.

8am: After shower, I made a breakfast taco with eggs and salsa. Ate with beets I roasted last night. Followed by more brownies 😛

I don’t remember much what I did between the brownies and 11am. I read my book, played game on my phone, talked to my husband. Just stayed on the couch basically.

11:30am: Walked to Farmers Market with hubby. We both love this farmers market so much, it’s so lively and has a good variety food stands and a live band. In the summer I go nuts on the stone fruits they sell here.

Husband got food from a few food stands and I ate from him. Samosa, fish taco, hot dog, and boba.

I got those Lula Roe tights as a gift (thanks, T) and I wore those out today. And I could not believe how comfy they are! Soooo soft and stretchy. I just need to figure out what tops to wear with them. I will love to wear them for traveling and red eyed flights.

12:15pm: Walked to Trader Joe’s for grocery shopping. Just a few blocks from farmers market.

A couple of adults and kids were giving free hugs at a street corner. I hugged 3 strangers and they were so nice 🙂

1pm: Stayed in the area and watched a movie (Guardian of the Galaxy vol 2) at this historic/old but cool theatre. We saw it on 3D and I think I got a light headache from it. It’s funny and action packed, lots of computer graphic. It’s a fun movie!

5pm: Done with dinner. Ate icecream and more brownies for dessert… Hong Kong Milk Tea is a new flavor from Humphrey. Wish it had more tea flavor.

6pm: Finished reading Waking Gods… I’m giving it 3 stars. It’s a sequel to Sleeping Giants which was amazing. Sequels can be a hit or a miss. This one is kind of a miss. But if there’ll be another sequel, I’ll still read it. I need to know what happens!

I actually enjoyed the story and the plot. I’m just not a fan of the writing style. The whole book is presented as pages of interviews, dialogs, journal entries, and news reports.

That was the 12th book I read this year. (I set a goal to read 25 this year.)

7pm: Cracking open a new book from the library. It sounds very promising! Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon.

I haven’t run a good race in over 1.5 years and I’m bored of running slow. I’m going to change things up a bit with my running!

Ever since I started running five years ago, I focused on running long distance races. Now to change things up, I am signed up to do a 5K race 7 weeks from now. Because I did no speed workouts for the last 1.5 years, I’ve lost quite a bit of running fitness. Track workouts and tempo runs will be back in my life again. They are keys to getting faster.

My (preliminary) goal for this upcoming 5K is 23 minutes or under. That’s 7:23 pace. I’m not in shape now but I think it’s doable. The only other short race I’ve run was a 10K and I ran a 7:26 pace… two years ago when I was much fitter.

I will document my training journey for the next seven weeks. Writing about it on the blog will hold me accountable to continue training hard 🙂

Today (Saturday), I squeezed in a short track workout during my 10 miler. I warmed up with 5 miles easy then did 10 x 1 minute at my neighborhood track. I ran 1 minute fast, 1 minute of jog/recovery, and repeated 10 times. I set my Garmin to beep every minute at track and I didn’t even look at my watch for pace. My FAVORITE part of each speed workout is reading the pace afterward! It’s so satisfying.

It’s my first track workout in a long time so short intervals were a good start. There’s much progress to be made in the next few weeks. I’m excited for the new training cycle!

I ran Rock n Roll San Francisco half marathon three weeks ago. I ran 1:59 and it was my second slowest half marathon to date!!! My slowest was my first ever half marathon in 2012 and finished at 2:01. This shows how unfit I’ve become (and it kicked me in the rear to train again.)

My favorite part of the course was this…. there was a major hill to climb toward Golden Gate Bridge, and there were pictures of fallen soldiers lining the course for a good half mile or longer. It’s such an emotional, touching part of the race.

My second favorite part of the race course was running on Golden Gate Bridge. The highlight for me was seeing my dad on my return route on the bridge. We highfived each other but our hands missed and we just kept running.

Finish line was pretty crowded but it’s normal.

My dad finishing his very first half marathon! We couldn’t be more proud.